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Juniper Networks Tuesday expanded its data center portfolio with a new architecture it says will simplify and accelerate the delivery of applications within and between multiple data center locations.

The new architecture, called MetaFabric, is being targeted at what Juniper called "next-generation cloud data centers," or those used by service providers and enterprise organizations to support new technologies like mobility, big data and, of course, the cloud.

Because these next-generation data centers often leverage a chain of multiple and remote locations, ensuring the flow of applications between them -- and a timely delivery of those applications to end users -- can be a challenge. That, Juniper says, is where MetaFabric comes in, providing an architecture that allows these disparate data centers to behave, operate and be managed as one.

"Most of the small, medium and large enterprises that we serve have multiple data centers that they own and operate. They also often -- usually, in fact -- are using a cloud provider for some applications," said Mike Marcellin, senior vice president of Strategy and Marketing for Juniper's Platform Systems Division (PSD). "They need to connect their data centers to each other, and they need to connect their data centers to the cloud, ... so when we talk about a data center architecture like MetaFabric, it's more than just what sits inside the four walls of one data center."

"MetaFabric is quite broad in its notion of optimizing and simplifying switches in the data center -- which is the problem that QFabric solves -- and then optimizing how data centers connect to each other," he told CRN.

"InterVision is constantly looking for ways to make it easier for our customers to deploy, utilize and manage network resources across their data centers. Juniper's new MetaFabric architecture is an intelligent approach to building cloud network architectures, and a big step forward for Juniper in their strategy to maximize the efficiency of data center resources," Gress wrote in an email to CRN. "We feel this message will resonate well with IT executives in explaining Juniper's value proposition across multiple data centers and large enterprise."